If your mother does not understand what you are saying then neither do you.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

In the 80s we gently ripped faces off

(Now I only want to blow up the taxpayer - AM)

From Stuff.co.nz

By COLIN ESPINER in Lima, Peru - Fairfax Media

In his first formal address since being sworn in as Prime Minister of New Zealand on Wednesday, John Key told a gathering of some 500 business leaders from 21 countries at the Apec meeting in Lima, Peru, that the global economy had been fuelled by an unprecedented amount of credit obtained through "huge amounts of leveraging" by hedge funds and other financial institutions."These forces were in turn fuelled by excessive optimism in asset markets and a more relaxed, and in many case, recklessly complacent attitude to risk," Key told the chief executives.Introduced to his audience as a former businessman and Merrill Lynch trader, Key went on to harshly criticise his former colleagues in the financial sector, saying hedge fund managers had become unregulated, opaque, and "globally unmanagable".But Key, who made an estimated $50 million buying and selling the New Zealand dollar as a trader in the 1980s, ducked any blame for the current situation, saying the system was now radically different to when he was a trader.